I’m not going to tell you that if you go to the Florence Mall or one of the sports bars in Newport, you’re going to see a lot of folks wearing Bellarmine University gear. But I will tell you that a serious recruiting pipeline has developed between Northern Kentucky and the NCAA Division II Catholic university in Louisville.
The Knights, who are in their 12th season under Coach Scott Davenport, have depended heavily on two Northern Kentucky Players – Ben Weyer of Newport Central Catholic and Brent Bach of Augusta – on their way to a 28-3 record and the No. 1 seed in the D-II Midwest Regional, which begins Friday night at Bellarmine’s Knights Hall.
They will be joined next season by Sean McNeil, a 6-4 senior on the Cooper High team that recently upset Covington Catholic to win its first Ninth Region championship and a “Sweet Sixteen” berth opposite Meade County next Thursday in Lexington’s Rupp Arena.
Davenport sees McNeil as a player in the mold of Rusty Troutman, a current Bellarmine senior who’s a leader on both ends of the floor. In Bellarmine’s motion offense, Troutman is an excellent passer who also can score on slashes to the hoop or three-pointers.
“We began recruiting Sean when he was a sophomore,” said Davenport when McNeil signed his NCAA letter of intent. “He is a great fit with every facet of our program. Sean is a great teammate, team player and he has a very strong desire to learn…He is not just a shooter, he is a complete player.”
In other words, he’s not like Bach, a junior who specializes in coming off the bench and providing instant offense with his ability to shoot the three. As a high school senior, Bach averaged 31.2 points per game and was one of the state’s leading scorers.
At Bellarmine, his role has changed. He and Weyer both come off the bench to provide quality depth for a team that loves to play uptempo basketball. This season, while playing an average of 13.6 minutes per game, Bach is averaging 8.6 points and leading the team in treys (28 of 53 for 52.8 per cent).
“Brent’s just an incredible shooter,” says Doug Davenport, Scott’s son and assistant coach “He can knock it down from deep in the corner or just about any place else, for that matter.”
Weyer also can shoot the three, making 33 of 67, but he also has the bulk to go inside and score on pivot moves or tips. He has mainly backed up 6-8 sophomores Adam Eberhard of Evansville, who has emerged this season as a serious All-American candidate.
As Davenport sees it, Weyer at least will be an all-conference player by the time he’s a senior. But he also could be even more than that if he continues to build his stamina, strength, and defense.
Although other Northern Kentuckians played at Bellarmine before Davenport came along, the current pipeline is unique. It more or less began with Jake Thelen, a 6-7 product of Covington Catholic who transferred to Bellarmine after his freshman year. As a junior in 2014, he made 74 per cent of his shots to lead the nation. He dropped all the way to 67 per cent as a senior, but was a consensus first-team All-American.
And we might as well toss Cincinnati into the pipeline. Remember Nick Holmes, a senior on Bellarmine’s 2011 national title team? He came out of Cincinnati Elder. And freshman-to-be C.J. Fleming of Cincinnati’s LaSalle High will be a leading contender to replace Al Davis at starting point guard next season.
Fleming verbally committed to the Knights prior to his junior season.
“I chose Bellarmine because the first time I went down—which was when my brother played for NKU—and it was amazing,” Fleming said. “The game was packed, and everyone was into it, and it was just amazing to see. Ever since then, I’ve always told people that’s where I wanted to go. Coach Davenport came up and offered me, and I was so happy. I finally got what I wanted and can’t wait to play for him and be part of the Bellarmine family.”
Weyer, Bach, McNeil, and Fleming also mentioned academics as one of their main reasons for picking Bellarmine. Almost all Davenport’s scholarship players, even those who have played pro ball in Europe, have gotten their degrees.
All probably could have gone to a D-I school somewhere. But they opted instead for a place where they could play basketball at a high level and receive a degree from a university that’s widely respected for its academics. In other words, it’s a win-win for both the university and the players.
It’s too early to say what might pop out of the pipeline next. But Davenport is too smart to let a good thing die. A lover of thoroughbred racing, he’s no stranger to Turfway Park, which is as good a place as any to meet Northern Kentuckians who might be able to put down their Daily Racing Forms long enough to tell him about some good prospects just down the road.
Billy Reed is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame and the Transylvania University Hall of Fame. He has been named Kentucky Sports Writer of the Year eight times and has won the Eclipse Award twice. Reed has written about a multitude of sports events for over four decades, but he is perhaps one of media’s most knowledgeable writers on the Kentucky Derby